madrid Articles

Things to Do, Travel Tips, & Advice

One of the reasons we love to travel is to experience cultures different from ours, whether that be across the world or across the state. Go just a few miles and everything can change -- food, drink, language, customs, weather and even the clothes people wear (or don't). For the next 12 weeks, we'll be following along with Scott Schuman, fashion photographer and blogger, also known as "The Sartorialist," as he explores the differences in fashion and culture around the world.

This week, Schuman heads to Madrid, Spain, to explore the fashion and culture behind the sport of bullfighting. Check out what he learns, below.

Summer is a great time to get out of town, but whither the azaleas? OgilvyAction has created a hotel for plants so that flowers will no longer have to pay the price for their prodigal owners' relaxation.

For business travelers, paying a few extra bucks for a direct flight is seldom an issue, but tourists often book flights with cost in mind, choosing to fly multiple segments to reach their destination if the price is right. If you think connecting at an airport in the U.S. is inconvenient, try gate hopping at London Heathrow, Madrid Barajas, or our other picks for airports to avoid in Europe.

A new 'garbage hotel' that popped up in Madrid might be the trashiest ever. The inn features walls covered with litter dragged ashore by tides, garbage recovered from landfills, and junk picked up at flea markets.

A visitor to Madrid relying on rusty high school Spanish may not hear much slang, known as "argot" or "jerga," while in Spain's capital. Not because it's rare, but because people tend to speak so fast that unless you're born and bred here you'll struggle to make out individual phrases amid a machine-gun babble of speech. Madrileños (residents of Madrid) delight in flouting the restrictions imposed by the venerable Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), which tries to enforce standards for the Spanish language. So put down your high-school textbook and bone up on this list of common Madrid slang terms and phrases.